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Nature 427, 111-112 (8 January 2004) | doi:10.1038/427111a

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Developmental biology: Asymmetric fixation

Nick Monk1

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Computer simulations and laboratory experiments have shed light on how an asymmetric pattern of gene expression is fixed in vertebrate embryos — an early step towards asymmetric development of the internal organs.

As judged by external appearances, the left and right sides of vertebrate bodies are (more or less) identical. There are, however, consistent left–right differences in the structure and placement of the internal organs.

  1. Nick Monk is at the Centre for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and in the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 211 Portobello Street, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK.
    Email: n.monk@shef.ac.uk